On Saturday I had a group of three guys from Ohio. Eric,Mike and M were a pleasure to have on the boat and there friendly banter made for some laughs. The fishing ended up being much better than it had been. I took the guys to some residential canals as I felt they would provide the best action. This first stop would produce lady fish and the guys had know problem after some short instructions casting and getting the retrieve down. I did not keep a tally but I guess they landed over 20 or so of them.

Lady fish

At times the action could get a little intense as the Pelicans are very hungry right now and they would try and grab the fish off the hook. This made for one close call of a Pelican getting hooked but between Eric and I we were able to free the bird uninjured.

On our next stop we worked another canal. This one would hold trout today. The water temp had come up just two degrees and this seemed to turn the fish on. The lure presentation was a bit different this time. But once again the guys caught on and caught around 25 trout. If they would of been keeping fish to eat they would of easily had there limits but all fish were released for future guest.

Eric w/ trout

M w/ trout

On Sunday morning I woke and got ready to head out. I was a little concerned when I got in the truck and I had ice on the windshield. In the back of my mind I could only think how this may have a bad effect on the fishing. I had no choice other than head to the ramp as my guest for this day Ed and Dennis were driving from Sarasota. They were depending on me to put them on some fish.

I knew once again our best chance was going to be fishing the canals. The fish were in the same place I left them the day before but the water temp had dropped overnight so the fish were just not as eager to eat. Ed and Dennis had the jigging down but only managed to entice a few lady’s to eat.

Dennis working the area with a jig

The bite totally shut off so we made our move to the trout canal. The guys started off with the soft plastic jigs,but it was not going to happen this way. I removed the soft plastic and and threaded a live shrimp onto the jig head. This combined with crawling the baits slowly across the bottom got the bite. In all honesty the action was very slow and only a few trout were caught.

Sunday ended up being a little cooler out than Saturday. It was still clear sunny skies but it just wasnt enough to warm the water.

Ed w/ trout

For the next week the weather is supposed to be pretty nice with temps in the 70’s. We have another front coming through but its supposed to be a mild one. Spring is supposed to begin on the 20th of the month. It can not come soon enough.

Don’t forget to check back . I will keep posting up the reports no matter how good or bad.

Canals were the main target area this past week. The fishing was slow with mainly sheepshead and lady fish being caught. The sheepshead make great table fair and the lady’s they make for some fun rod bending action.

The sheeps head were caught around the dock pilings in the canals using small live shrimp on a 1/0 circle hood weighted with a small split shot. The lady’s on the other hand were eager to eat our artificial baits. Just about any soft plastic on a 1/8 oz jig head would do the trick. Letting the bait hit the bottom of the canal and then bouncing it back along the bottom would entice the strike.

The trout bite was totally off and I think this had to do with this latest front coming thru. Sometimes the fish just get lock jaw and there is nothing you can do about it. The fishing so far this year has been very unpredictable. I know I am not the only one that hopes the weather soon breaks and we get some warm temps.

Keep checking back for more reports. Spring is just around the corner, I hope.

The residential canals have been a good place to get some shelter from the chilly winds. Water temps are still in the mid 50s so the fish are still a little sluggish on the bite but seem to be getting a little more aggressive. I think this may be due to the lack of bait around the bay so these fish are really getting hungry.

Notice the 55 degree water temp

The bait used on our recent outings has varied between live shrimp and a mix of artificial soft plastic baits.  Live shrimp on a 2/0 light circle hook with a small split shot about a foot up the 20 lb floro leader has been producing well and is a great choice for the angler who mostly wants to just cast,sit back and feel the bite.

Soft plastic artificial  on the other hand have produced well in different colors. Mostly we have been pairing either the Hybrids Flurry or the DOA Cal with a 1/4 oz jig head.  Casting out and letting it drop to the bottom then slowly jigging it back has produced the best strikes.

The Hybrid Flurry in assorted colors

The fish seem to be concentrated mostly in the middle of the canals with some hanging near the edges of the drop offs soaking up the warmth of the sun.

Trout caught on a DOA Cal ,pearl with chart tail

Bringing one to the boat,Spotted Sea trout

Most of the fish we are catch have been in the 17 to 20 inch keeper size range. Spotted sea trout make great table fare so you can look forward to taking some home for dinner.

Trout have been the story as of late but with some warming temps soon to come this should change. I am really hoping that March will be a new story and some of our other species will be coming to life. Its been a brutal winter so all we can hope for is that mother nature is going to show us some love soon.

Good friend Capt. Steve Nagy from Bonita Springs

I have been getting some very good reports of some larger spotted sea trout being caught while wade fishing. Most of the places I am being told that folks are catching them are not accessible by boat.

I have also had a report that the inshore reefs are starting to produce. Mostly sheepshead and black drum. I have not been able to get out and verify this but I will be soon. I am just waiting on a break in what seems to be cold front after cold front pushing through. Its not the cold deterring me from getting out there but the brutal north winds than make for some very uncomfortable and at times unsafe boating.

Lets hope and pray that this weather lets up and we get some calmer and warmer days.

Until then stay tuned and I will be reporting on what is happening in Tampa Bay.

I changed it up a bit this past week and ran my trips using mostly artificial baits. For some reason the trout seem to be responding better to artificial lures. The lures I have been using have varied depending on the water clarity. The water clarity was not very good in the Tampa bay areas I  fished this past week so the best results I got were by using a 1/4oz DOA Glow Shrimp. This is a slow moving bait and crawling it slowly along the bottom or drifting it in the current produced the most bites.

DOA GLOW SHRIMP

Winter time fishing is a totally different ball game than spring or fall when the water temp hovers in the mid 70s and the fish seem to want to chew the bottom out of the boat. Patience is the name of the game and working your baits slowly and methodically will produce the best action.

On one of my trips this week I made a move further west and fished in the Clearwater area. I love this area and I just don’t get the time to fish it as much as I would like. Small  islands dot the area and huge expanses of grass flats never seem to end.

This is a great area to set up a drift and toss soft plastic jigs bouncing them slowly along the bottom to entice the trout into biting. The DOA Shad Tail in Rootbeer with chart tail or the Pearl with Chart tail rigged on a 1/8 oz jig head seemed to do the trick.

DOA SHAD TAIL

I picked up some live shrimp for this trip and after the guys had some fun with the trout I moved and set up on a hole around 25′ deep. This turned out to be a good move. Live shrimp on a 1/0 circle hook and a split shot produce several nice sized whiting. Another move and it was sheepshead and small black drum.

The Guys with some of thier catch

This past week was a productive one and I only expect it to get better. I will be back on the water next week and I will be sure to give a report.

Spotted Seatrout are very tasty and they can be prepared using many different methods. I prefer to fillet them and either season ,lightly batter and fry or season,coat with butter,drizzle with lime juice and broil. Silver trout tend to be to small to actually fillet so I like to scale them,gut them,cut the heads off and season,beer batter and deep fry them.

Catching both species can be a challenge. I have been finding most of the spotted seatrout in deeper creeks and canals about 3 to 6 feet. Fishing with a live shrimp,weighted with a small split shot on some 15 # test leader seems to get the best bite.

The silvers are a totally different game. Silvers tend to huddle up in the deep channels of  Tampa Bay from 15 to 35 feet deep. The method I like to use to target them is to first locate them on my bottom machine. Once found I anchor up and basically vertical jig for them. Using a 1/4 to 1/2 oz jig head baited with a soft plastic (color can vary) I will vertically jig it up and down in the water column to entice the bite. Once you get on these fish it can be one after another. I have had days when all things worked out and caught over a hundred silvers in just a couple of hours.

Now is a great time to target both species and put some tasty fish in the cooler. My personal opinion is that the cooler winter waters produce tastier trout.

Spotted Seatrout

Silver Trout

Good friend and fellow fishing guide Capt. Steve Nagy (Nay- Gee) lives there and runs his guide service on the waters of Estero Bay. Capt. Steve was kind enough to guide us around Estero and show us some of the scenery. The area had just come off of a ten day cold (freeze) snap so my expectations as far as the fishing would be were not very high. I told Capt. Steve not to be to concerned about the fishing as both myself and my wife Karen understood how the harsh cold conditions had a major effect on how the fishing would be. Tampa had also been hit hard by the cold and it just about put the fish bite at a stand still.

We spent two days fishing some very slow and tough conditions with not to much to show for it. We did see a few fish but they were just not willing to eat. I sight casted to a lone snook in the 35″ range and as he turned on the soft plastic artificial I thought it was going to be a hook up. He followed it and then turned off as to say I am just not in the mood.

We kept moving around checking place after place with dismal  results. But it was nice to see some different terrain. Estero Bay unlike Tampa Bay is loaded with oyster bars. This is one place that if you do not know the areas waters you stay inside the marked channels.

Day one of our trip yielded a lady fish and one trout. That’s fishing!

Day two we started out with a different plan. Capt. Steve asked me what I would like to do? I told him I thought maybe we should explore some other areas like canals and such where the water temp may be a little higher and hold some fish. Capt. Steve agreed so off we went. We hit some canals and fished the docks and mangrove edges but we were yet to get a bite. After a while I think a little frustration was setting in but I reassured Steve that we knew the conditions were less than favorable and we did not expect miracles. Heck Karen and I were just happy to be on a boat in a place we had not seen before. Capt. Steve made a decision to take us up the Imperial River. As we approached the mouth of the river where it dumps into Estero Bay we could see Trout shooting by under the boat in the crystal clear water. We set up and fished the mouth for a while with no takers.

On we went further up the river. We got to an area and Capt. Steve told us to pitch out our soft plastic baits and we would slow troll them behind the boat. Steve had a good feeling we could hook up on some Jacks in this area. Capt. Steve had the right feeling and it was not but a minute and I was hooked up and then Karen. If you have never caught a Jack on light tackle you don’t know what you are missing.

They will put even the best of tackle to the test. Karen had her hands full fighting her fish on 8 lb test with a Gloomis rod and 2500 series Shimano stradic reel.

After a nice drag ripping battle Karen and I landed our fish and got a quick picture before we released them.As usual Karen gets the larger of the fish. We spent some more time playing with the Jacks catching another half dozen or so.  We all agreed we had some fun so off we went to have lunch at the Fish House. After lunch we decided we should get a group picture so we had one of the patrons there snap a picture for us.

After some laughs about the picture we headed off and scouted around some more. The rest of the afternoon was just basically enjoying the beauty of the mangrove lined shorelines and multitude of oyster bars.

It was not a crazy fish catching time but its not always about that. When conditions are not right you just have to enjoy the beauty that surrounds you. It wont be long and I am sure Estero Bay will be alive with activity.

I have to say thanks to Capt. Steve for being such a wonderful host and sharing his vast knowledge of Estero Bay with us. Karen and I have already discussed going back in the spring time.

You can check out Capt. Steve Nagy’s web site at  www.bonitaspringsfishing.com

Thanks for reading along

Capt. Steve Betz

These sustained periods of freezing cold weather are having there effects on our fishery. The Tampa Bay water temps are now down in the 40’s and the fish are running out of warmer areas to seek refuge. Freezing cold days combined with some overcast skies will allow some of the darker mud bottom areas to lose there higher temperatures. Fortunately we have had mostly sunny days as this helps a little to allow those mud bottoms to warm and the fish get a chance to sun them selves.

The problem with these cold temps are two fold. The first problem is the fish (particularly snook) become stunned and begin to float on the surface. If left alone they have a chance to survive if the temperatures come back up and they get some warmth. Unfortunately I have been reading reports from around the Tampa Bay area of hundred’s of dead snook being found in some places. Personally I have not witnessed this first hand and I know how folks in the fishing community tend to exaggerate. I sure hope it was an exaggeration.

The second problem we have when the temps are down like this is poachers! The lethargic fish are easy prey for the poachers armed with nothing more than a cast net,fillet knife and cooler. I have also been reading reports of poachers being confronted and reported to the FWC. One report I read this week had a video of about 25 snook carcasses from 12 to 30 inches laying on the bottom near a boat launch. All the carcasses had been fillet. These were the obvious  bi product of poachers. I have to wonder why someone would want to fillet a 12″ snook? There would hardly be enough meat to snack on.

On a positive note our ten day forecast has us back in the 70s for a couple of days towards the end of the week. Our temps should stay on the warmer side from there on out making fishing much better. There are still plenty of fish to target with redfish,trout,sheepshead,flounder and others being in the mix. I would bet money the silver trout will be piled in the deeper holes and channels. These fish make for some great table fare as well as some fun action for the young and old alike.

In the meantime I am going to be resting up trying to kick this cold I picked up so I can be back in on the action.

Thanks for reading along.

Capt. Steve Betz

Common Snook

When it gets cold beyond comfortable I have found other fishing related options to keep me busy. I spend some time on the phone talking to other fishing guides and recreational fishermen alike. I even head down to the tackle shop to spend some time talking with the fellows. Of course there are other things to do like preparing for the ever dreaded trip to the accountant to have the yearly taxes done. But that is no fun so I usually opt to go through my fishing gear and organize things.

There may be a reel or two that need some TLC so I will take the time to service them. This is a good time to go over some things on the boat. Tampa Bay’s salt water conditions can take its toll on the boat so I will go over checking for loose screws,wiring connections,ect. Its also a good time to check the trailer over. Air pressure for the tires,lubing the axle bearings,checking the winch strap ect. There is nothing worse than breaking down on the way to the boat ramp because of something a little maintenance could of avoided.

With all that being said I like the cold for some reasons. If the weather did not turn sour once in a while I would probably never get anything done other than fishing.

I thought it might be a good idea to include a video in this report. Not to long ago a friend of mine (Neal Cline) and I put together a video on fishing reel maintenance. I hope you enjoy and find it useful.

Trout season will be reopening in our area the first of the new year.

I have great confidence that I can put clients on some nice keeper trout this time of year so I wanted to do something different today. I like to offer a variety of species to catch using different methods so my charter’s stay fun and eventful. Being caught up in fishing the back waters and creeks I have neglected fishing the residential canals. Today would be the day I would scout them out.

I took a friend of mine with me today. John is a novice angler but he loves to fish and does not mind the scouting portion of fishing. Scouting is not something I can do with clients on board so when I do scout its usually by myself or with someone that enjoys scouting. You see scouting is not all ways about catching.

The time I had allotted today to scout probably wasn’t the best for canals as it was a negative low tide and I prefer a high out going when fishing them. But hey I had to go when I could as not to miss out on tonight’s party.

Methodically we worked the docks one by one,looking for fish and tossing small live shrimp under them. John caught on quick and began catching Redfish and Sheepshead.

After spending the time out there today I was not disappointed I went. It was not a banner day but it was productive. We caught about a dozen Red fish (red drum) and probably another dozen Sheepshead with a Snook thrown in the mix.

It was a good way to end an old year and bring in a new. It also adds an alternative fishing experience for my clients to enjoy.

Have a Happy and Safe New Year.

Capt. Steve Betz